EA and Nintendo announce Cube plan

Microsoft will continue to bombard games journalists with marketing
statistics until the sun goes down on humanity, but even if God
Himself announced that he was using Xbox Live, we're pretty sure it
wouldn't match up to the news of EA's critical, newfound allegiance
to Nintendo.

(All right, it's not that big, but we're effing bored of hearing
how 98 per cent of deer-owning kipper salesmen who once went to
Skegness and married a Tory politician recommend Xbox Live, and
play for 62 and a half minutes every day.)

Announced just this afternoon, the EA/Nintendo alliance will see
the mighty twosome collaborating on a whole host of games across
both Cube and GBA, with various opportunities for
interconnectivity, and technical input from Shigeru Miyamoto.

There will be a total of 20 or so Cube titles from EA's various
shopfronts (BIG, Sports, Games, etc) over the next 12 months, and
the first three (FIFA 2004, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 and Madden
NFL 2004) will be available on both Cube and GBA simultaneously
with link-up options. In the case of the footy and golf titles,
we're certainly excited.

The thing to remember is that whilst EA's relationship with PS2 is
mutually beneficial, support from Electronic Arts means a lot more
to Nintendo and Microsoft than support from Nintendo and Microsoft
does to EA, so the news that the world's biggest publisher is
siding with Kyoto will have analysts scribbling furiously. We've
learnt from past experience that EA's undying support is a virtual
kingmaker, and that their resistance is a nail in the coffin - as
Dreamcast owners will bitterly note.

Given EA's reportedly tempestuous relationship with Microsoft, one
could view this latest move as something of a "rebound thing".